In the past few years, every January, the NBA has pointed to the Hawks, Lakers, Heat, Suns, and Mavericks to renew their franchise.

There is no way, January of almost every season is the month with the lowest Internet traffic and news topic index for the NBA.

In addition to fans becoming tired from watching the game, players are not willing to play hard at this time, fearing injuries and other things other than strength that will affect their performance in the second half of the season.

But this year is different. The Hawks defeated the Mavericks, Hornets, and Cavaliers in a row, but they couldn't get the headlines. The same thing happened when they slaughtered the Pacers by more than 30 points.

Because the competition for rankings from second to ninth in the Western Conference has been intense since the beginning of the new year! Even if the Trail Blazers win a streak, they may reach second place in the Western Conference.

By January, the NBA’s attention has risen instead of falling!

There has never been such a fierce competition for rankings in NBA history. The Western Conference may create a miracle this year where the top nine teams all get 50 wins, which means there may be a team with 50 wins that cannot make the playoffs.

!

This has never happened before in NBA history.

Facts have proved that it’s not that fans don’t want to watch football in January, it’s just that everyone knows that in January games, except for those popular teams that are scheduled to meet and the games will be more intense, most games will be less confrontational and enjoyable.

It has declined, and fans are a little tired of it.

When it comes time for the slot battle after the All-Star Weekend, won’t all the fans come back?

This season, NBA ratings have not declined in the middle of the season, and online traffic has increased instead of falling, which illustrates this point well.

On January 6, the first All-Star voting data was released.

The day after the Christmas Day game between the Hawks and the Lakers, the All-Star voting began. Starting on the 6th, the 17th, and the 28th, the votes were announced every 11 days, and the final results were announced on the 28th.

The fans' enthusiasm continues, which is also a huge benefit for All-Star voting.

This time, in the first phase of the All-Star vote count, 8 stars have exceeded one million votes!

In terms of Western Conference guards, Kobe and Iverson, a pair of guards from the 1996 generation, began to occupy positions just like the original Double 21.

The votes of both of them exceeded one million. Kobe won the first championship after O'Neal left. His popularity continued to rise. He ranked first in the Western Conference with 1.39 million votes and was the total vote leader so far.

Iverson ranked second among Western Conference guards and third in the Western Conference with 1.13 million votes.

The only player in the Western Conference forward position who has exceeded one million votes is Tim Duncan, who is once again in his prime, with 1.03 million votes.

Anthony ranked second among Western Conference forwards with 790,000 votes.

At the center position, Yao Minglei is unbeatable and holds the top spot for six consecutive years, with 1.25 million votes.

Neither guard nor center in the Western Conference has much suspense. The popularity of Kobe and Iverson is too stable. The third place Chris Paul and the fourth place Steve Nash combined do not have as many votes as Iverson.

The same goes for Yao Ming at the center position. O'Neal only received more than 700,000 votes, only 50,000 more than Wang Zhizhi.

Duncan's All-Star selection is estimated to be hard to shake, but Anthony is not stable. Behind him are Carlos Boozer with 750,000 votes, Josh Smith with 710,000 votes, Gasol with 630,000 votes, and O'Brien with 630,000 votes.

Dom's 470,000 votes.

In the East, no one except Liu Mang would have expected that the top vote-getter for the Eastern All-Stars would be Dwight Howard.

Howard ranked first among centers in the Eastern Conference with 1.28 million votes! Even more votes than Western Conference center Yao Ming!

It's not that Howard is the most popular among the Eastern Conference stars, but he is the most lovable at this stage. He laughs like a big kid all day long, attracting many people to vote for him.

Kwame Brown is far from an All-Star, ranking second among Eastern Conference centers with only 610,000 votes.

But what's even more unlucky is Milicic, an unlucky kid. He only ranked fourth among Eastern Conference centers in the nation with just over 300,000 votes. Even the Heat's backup center Rasheed Wallace got 60,000 more votes than him.

ticket.

Just like Nowitzki, fans think he is great, but not many people vote for him.

Milicic is so down-to-earth. While other popular stars go around promoting and making money in the summer, he returns to his hometown to help his mother milk cows and relies on his fame to help his mother's ranch contact dairy manufacturers to sell milk...

He no longer has to help his mother farm the land now that he has money, but the older generation cannot live without the land, so Milicic helped his mother buy a pasture.

The most powerful dairy farmer among NBA players is, not surprisingly, Milicic.

As for forwards in the Eastern Conference, James ranked first with 1.15 million votes, and Garnett ranked second with 910,000 votes.

The storm caused by Garnett last year has become much smaller this year. The feud between Garnett and the Bulls management is continuing. One wants a long-term contract, while the team only wants to give a short-term high salary, and they can't reach an agreement.

It also affected Garnett's popularity to a certain extent.

The competition for forwards in the Eastern Conference is also fierce, with Stoudemire, Grant Hill, Raheem, Pierce, Bosh and Marion all receiving high votes.

Grant Hill, in particular, ranked fourth among Eastern Conference forwards with 690,000 votes.

In terms of guards, Liu Mang ranked first with 1.2 million votes, second in the Eastern Conference, and Tracy McGrady with 1.13 million votes.

These two are very stable, because the third-placed vote-getter is Wade with 850,000 votes...Then fourth-placed Carter is with only 510,000 votes, which is already a big gap from the top three.

Although Carter began to develop a more stable style of play two or three years later than originally planned, he did not escape the matter of "going out of style".

Wade doesn’t know whether he is lucky or not. On December 24, the league announced the All-Star candidate list. All-star players can only choose from this list. Wade came back on the 21st. He performed well in the first game after his comeback.

He was added to the list, but once he entered the candidate list, he could only be ranked third.

This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! No matter what, the Eastern Conference All-Star guard belongs to the Hawks.

…

There is no doubt that the All-Star voting results will also be a factor affecting player motivation.

The competition among the top nine in the Western Conference is fierce, which means that the record will not be much different, and the data of the stars are not drastically different. The unusually disparate first-round vote distribution in the Western Conference naturally makes some stars dissatisfied.

Improving the enthusiasm of players and increasing the excitement that fans can find when watching games is the reason why the league announces the votes every ten days. Otherwise, it would just announce the All-Stars on the 28th.

But...

These things seem to have nothing to do with the Eagles.

The battle for third to fifth place in the Eastern Conference and the bloody competition for second to ninth place in the Western Conference have nothing to do with the Hawks.

The Eagles' schedule in January looks relatively difficult. Since the Eagles only have four or five strong opponents at the end of October plus November and December, there will naturally be many more strong opponents in the remaining 52 games.

Just like the first three games played in January, the first game was against the Hornets and the second game was against the Cavaliers, both opponents who were considered popular teams at the beginning of the season.

After playing three away games starting in January, the Eagles' record became 27 wins and 6 losses. After watching the first All-Star voting results on the 6th, the Eagles faced the challenge of the Nets that night.

This is the first of five consecutive home games for the Eagles after five consecutive road trips.

Yesterday's game against the Pacers, the Eagles didn't play happily at all. The opponent was helpless and the Eagles were embarrassed to abuse them too much. They won by 36 points.

This time against the Nets, all the players available for the Hawks are very motivated.

Speaking of being able to play... it's simple, the Eagles have a bye for the second game of back-to-back games.

The coaching staff will never let Wade play in the second game of a back-to-back. The team doctor said Wade can participate without restriction, but the coaching staff is afraid!

It is simply a miracle that Wade can recover to such a healthy state. Since there are medical records in the history of the NBA, there has never been a situation where he can still have top physical fitness after a torn cruciate ligament.

This makes it even more important to take good care of it.

In addition to Wade, McGrady, Kwame Brown, Marion also took turns.

The Hawks' lineup for this game is Rondo, Liu Mang, Mason, O'Neal Jr., and Brad Miller.

The Eagles have a second-year player, a superstar, and three bad old guys... their ability is really not that good.

Rondo is a bit unaccustomed to it. When partnering with Liu Mang, Marion, McGrady, and Kwame Brown, he would throw the counterattack into the air. The four of them jumped out like flying and dunked alley-oops. Now only Mason and Liu Mang are there.

It can be done.

The Eagles trailed by three points, 23-26, in the first quarter, but tied the score at 50 after halftime. They tied the score in the first half purely through positivity.

In the second half, the Eagles' depth advantage became apparent.

It is true that the Nets are still good. They are not at the bottom of the Eastern Conference. They sent away their two major stars and got a lot of high-quality role players. When they fielded their best lineup, they played on par with the Hawks in the first half.

, among which rookie Noah's support played a big role. Nocioni's three-pointer and Duhon's cut-in cooperated well with Noah.

But as the game progressed, Jason Terry found his sense in the second half, with Scola's inside singles and the most stable Liu Mang...

In the third quarter, the Eagles scored 37-22 in a single quarter, widening the point difference to 15 points in one fell swoop, making the game lose suspense.

In the end, with Liu Mang scoring 33 points, 5 rebounds and 9 assists in 39 minutes of playing time, Rondo's 11 points, 4 rebounds and 3 assists, Jason Terry's 21 points and Scola's 16 points, the Hawks scored four goals.

In doubles, they easily defeated the Nets 113-99 and won their seventh consecutive victory.

After playing the Nets, on January 8, the Hawks ushered in their second opponent in five consecutive games, the Wizards.

The Wizards, currently seventh in the Eastern Conference, only have a record of 16 wins and 19 losses. Unlike the last time they competed with the Hawks until the last moment, this time the Wizards were defeated by the Hawks early.

Liu Mang played 21 minutes in the first half and clocked out with 17 points, 6 assists and 4 blocks in the half...

McGrady, who came back after a rest, was indeed extraordinary. He hit 5 three-pointers in the first quarter and helped Liu Mang get 4 assists in a single quarter. As a result, McGrady made 0 of 6 three-pointers in the second and third quarters...

...the hit rate has been greatly reduced.

Liu Mang felt that McGrady was like this every time. After a wave of arrogance, he wanted to continue to be arrogant, but the result was always in favor of McGrady.

Wade's comeback ensured the continuity of defense when rotating the lineup. Although Wade only scored 14 points, 4 rebounds and only 2 assists in 28 minutes, the Hawks initially focused on Liu Mang.

The high-quality defense played continued.

115 to 91, the Hawks defeated the Wizards with a 24-point difference and won their 8th consecutive victory!

29 wins and 6 losses!
Chapter completed!